The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has started moves to finally resolve over a decade disagreement between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) on the concession of the domestic terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, known as MMA2.
The leadership of ICRC led by its acting Director-General, Chidi Izuwah met with top officials of BASL and FAAN in Lagos on Monday to chart a way to resolve the intractable problem, which officials of the concessionaire and the agency agree was long overdue for resolution.
The terminal which took off in 2007 was given out in concession by FAAN, as representative of the federal government on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis, but while BASL insists that the concession agreement was for 36 years and that the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) belongs to the company in cognizance of the agreement, FAAN insists that it did not endorse 36 years for the concession but 12 years and that GAT was not part of the agreement.
Addressing the representatives of the two companies, the acting Director-General, Izuwah said the objective of ICRC was to amicably resolve the problem and put an end to the crisis that has bedeviled that concession for years, so as to encourage the private sector to continue to invest in public infrastructure development in the country.
“The Commission is therefore here today as the regulatory body saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and ensuring the efficient execution of all Private, Public Partnership (PPP) projects entered into by MDAs (Ministry, Department and Agencies) on behalf of the federal government as spelt out under section 20 (a) of the ICRC establishment Act, 2005,” Izuwa said.
The acting Director-General noted that the MMA2 and the hotel and the conference centre that were also given out to BASL in concession by FAAN were projects that were particularly dear to ICRC.
“The projects no doubt have had their fair share of the challenges, which the Commission is not unaware of. We want to assure you that the Commission is equally concerned about the difficulties these projects have experienced even as a model greenfield aviation PPP terminal in Nigeria,” Izuwah said.
The Chairman of BASL, Dr Wale Babalakin while welcoming officials of ICRC and FAAN to MMA2 said if Nigeria intends to encourage private sector participation in the infrastructural development of the country it must abide by international regulations; government and its agencies must respect and abide by concession agreements.
He denied the allegation that it was Bi-Courtney that drafted the concession agreement and also noted that the company was not the winner of the concession, but Royal Standerton, which was the preferred bidder; however, Bi-Courtney inherited the concession when the later could not meet the pace of work expected by the federal government.
Also speaking on behalf of FAAN, the Deputy General Manager, Public Private Partnership, Mrs. Monica Alphonse said that GAT has never been part of the concession agreement and that the monopoly status that stated that no other airport terminal should be developed during the course of the concession period by BASL may have taken cognizance of the fact that the concession was for 12 years.
She described such clauses that gave BASL such advantage as antitrust and pro-monopoly, adding that the agreement should have been renegotiated if the concession was designed for 36 years and noted, that “such agreement is repugnant to natural justice.”
However, Mrs. Alphonse said that FAAN was willing to ensure that the problem between it and BASL over the concession was resolved. BASL officials also spoke in the same vein.
THISDAY
